Palm Beach County residents were asked:
Please tell us about an important moment in your life that would help someone understand what it’s like living in your neighborhood.
The stories and micro-narratives they submitted (as part of the We Are Here SenseMaker project) are listed below. Click ZOOM IN to learn more about the community member and how they interpreted their submission. NOTE: Some stories were partially transcribed by volunteers who shortened the narratives and referred to the storytellers in the third person (e.g., “her experience was” instead of “my experience was”).
I grew up in Belle Glade, FL working in the corn fields with my father and mother. It was very hard and I did not get a chance to go to school that much because we were up back and forth on the road. We had a big family. We worked hard and sometimes we would go to New York in July. Growing up was good and we were always working.
Positive; downtown cultural vibe identity. Lived down here for three years, the demographics are changing, wealthy individuals disturbing the southern flavor. Outlook isn’t as good due to impatient materialistic snow birds. They don’t follow directions. They have no shame or conscious, and it’s undoing the natural flavor of Delray, and changing it.
Well In the city of lake worth I wasn’t always a good kid I used to be in and out of jail when I was young . I played with guns and went back and forth with young gang member The world that we live in today may not be as bad as it was growing up
Growing up me and brothers were struggling we really lost our parents at a young age to a car crash and my neighbor did so much for us and i thank them for that. They would bring food over everyday. Go to church with us and everything
I don’t know if this has anything to do with my neighborhood but when I was young I had a lot of questions and not enough answers. I wanted to know why this group of people got so much, when I had so little. Why they could go to college and I couldn’t. I didn’t except what people told me and I searched for answers myself. I ended up with a scholarship to college and different outlook on life